Our Sustainability Approach
As we strive to be the most innovative, sustainable, and chosen supplier of brand-building packaging solutions, we have built a strong, resilient organization designed for the future. O-I is not only reimagining and reinventing the business model for glass packaging but also using transformative concepts to heighten our sustainability ambitions. As part of transforming how we engage for a balance with people, planet, and prosperity, we reimagined our sustainability function, elevated it to the Global Leadership level, and broadened and deepened our governance. We believe empowering our people under a broader sustainability umbrella with a more global reach will enhance our efforts to make progress toward our sustainability goals and alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that are more relevant to our business.
Chief Sustainability Officer
To embed sustainability across the enterprise and ensure sustainability issues are incorporated into all company decision making, in 2020, O-I appointed its first Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO). The CSO reports directly to the CEO and is also a member of the Global Leadership Team. Working with the Board of Directors, CEO, and a Global Advisory Committee, the CSO develops and drives global corporate sustainability and ESG strategy. The CSO reports monthly to an executive steering team and appears quarterly before the Nominating and Corporate Governance committee of the Board of Directors, which has strategic and oversight responsibility for sustainability and ESG.
O-I’s Sustainability Team
Reporting to the CSO is a corporate-level team of subject matter experts that work to integrate sustainability into company functions and translate global-level goals into the country groups and plant-level action items. The global team is also responsible for global reporting, disclosure, certifications, and social engagement.
To ensure the effective integration of sustainability action at the country group and plant level, we created a Global Sustainability Leadership Team that is led by the CSO and members of the corporate-level sustainability team. Each country group has a sustainability leader and a matrixed network that reaches into each plant. Each country group leader bridges the priorities of corporate strategy with local issues and regulations to facilitate the implementation of sustainability actions at a local level.
In addition to the Global Sustainability Leadership Team, O-I has created Global Advisory Committees around the nine areas that are material to our business and stakeholders: People, Supply Chain, Engineering and R&D, Raw Materials, Energy, Water, Waste, Emissions, and Social Engagement. The Global Advisory Committees share ownership with the CSO’s team for creating O-I’s 2030 sustainability goals and driving performance into country groups.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, all United Nations Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) form the foundation of this Agenda, helping to prioritize and mobilize global efforts around these goals. At O-I, we believe there is no sustainable development without increasing our collective prosperity. We see the fundamental role that businesses have in collectively achieving the SDGs and therefore, we have aligned our goals to the SDGs relevant to our business.
CDP (formerly Climate Disclosure Project)
Starting in 2010, O-I voluntarily reports progress on carbon emission reductions and efforts to address climate risks through CDP Climate Change and progress on water stewardship through CDP Water every year.
Science-Based Targets initiative
O-I is one of more than 460 global companies that have committed to science-based targets for emissions reduction. By committing to these targets, we are taking a public stand to do our part in helping achieve the level of decarbonization required to maintain a global temperature increase below two degree Celsius from pre-industrial levels in alignment with the Paris Agreement of 2015.
Based on our approved science-based target, our goal is to reach a 25% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 with an interim target of 10% by 2025. To achieve our goals, we are looking to increase the percentage of renewable energy consumed at our facilities, explore alternative fuels, develop innovations in our manufacturing processes and products, increase energy efficiency in our plants, increase the use of recycled content in our containers, and encourage post-consumer recycling of glass.
EcoVadis
EcoVadis is a global sustainability rating network, which O-I first joined in 2014. It connects buyers and suppliers and assesses companies in a broad range of non-financial management systems, including environment, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement impacts. EcoVadis rates companies according to their management performance and against how they compare with industry peers. This fact-based assessment results in a scorecard that stakeholders can use to make informed comparisons and decisions. The rating also provides an assessment of the strengths and potential areas for sustainability performance improvement. In 2020, we received a Bronze rating.
Cradle to Cradle
The Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Products Program is one of the premier sustainability certifications for products around the world and across industries. The certification is based on five categories: material health, material re-utilization, water stewardship, renewable energy use, and social fairness. O-I is the first food and beverage packaging company to achieve a platinum rating in material health on the Cradle to Cradle Product Scorecard.We received Cradle to Cradle Certification at nearly 90% of our operations producing certain container colors in the beer, food, NAB, spirit, and wine markets. Our aspiration is to reach 100%.
Green Bond
O-I is the first company in the packaging industry to issue a Green Bond, furthering our commitment to sustainability throughout our global manufacturing operations and glass packaging. This bond, offered through O-I European Group B.V., raised nearly €500 million ($590 million) in funding to enable sustainable investments.
In the year since issuing the bond, we have allocated €255.6 million ($311 million) to purchase cullet. Cullet—the industry name for recycled glass—is a key to the sustainable manufacturing of glass packaging. The more cullet our plants use, the fewer raw materials needed, and the less energy is needed to create new glass containers. By O-I purchasing cullet, we support the circular economy through building demand for post-consumer recycled glass as well as increasing recycled content in new glass packaging. The cullet purchased through this program corresponds with the conservation of more than 1.4 million metric tons of CO2—the equivalent CO2 generated to electrically power over 250,000 homes for one year.
